JATUN RUMI, Ecuador (AP) — High in the mountains of the Ecuadorian Andes, a group of young Otavalo Indigenous people is using anime to inspire pride in their ancient culture and language, especially among Otavalo children.
They produced an animated short film titled “We’re Aya” that follows the adventures of Aya, a mythical Otavalo warrior, and other characters who interact under the watchful eye of a condor — an iconic bird for Andean Indigenous cultures that symbolizes power and energy.
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Tupac Amaru, the director of "Aya Somos," the first Quichua animated short, blending Otavalo culture with Japanese-style anime, gives an interview in Hatun Rumi, Ecuador, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
Yarik Sisa, an artist with Yay Animación, sketches in his notebook while his colleagues talk about their project "Aya Somos," the first Quichua animated short, blending Otavalo culture with Japanese-style anime, in Hatun Rumi, Ecuador, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
From left, Malkik Anrango, Yarik Sisa and Tupac Amaru walk among landscape they aim to capture in "Aya Somos," the first Quichua animated short, blending Otavalo culture with Japanese-style anime, in Hatun Rumi, Ecuador, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
From left, Malkik Anrango, Tupac Amaru and Yarik Sisa chat about "Aya Somos," the first Quichua animated short, blending Otavalo culture with Japanese-style anime, in the courtyard of the Yay Animación studio in Hatun Rumi, Ecuador, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
Yarik Sisa, an artist with Yay Animación, works on "Aya Somos," the first Quichua animated short, blending Otavalo culture with Japanese-style anime, in Hatun Rumi, Ecuador, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
Inspired by the work of legendary Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, the story takes place in the mountains of Imbabura, a province in the northern Andes that is home to the Otavalo people, known for their handicrafts and textiles.
Tupac Amaru, director and producer of the 9-minute film, said the movie is part of an effort to maintain Otavalo customs and language, which began to erode as globalization created a more interconnected world and influenced their culture.
His people faced two options, “lock ourselves out (from the world) and defend our culture, language, spirituality and clothing or stand tall and fight back,” Amaru said.
The film with 12 Quichua-speaking characters is a first step in trying to get Otavalo children to appreciate their heritage, he said. Indigenous themes have been explored before in short and feature-length films produced in Peru and Ecuador but most of those films have had Spanish-speaking characters.
“Quichua is the vibration that gives meaning to existence and without the language, the meaning of life and our energy comes to an end,” Amaru said.
“Our children no longer know Quichua,” which means they have lost a communication tool and “are losing their sense of belonging, their energy,” he added.
Quichua, an Indigenous language that is part of the Quechua language family, is primarily spoken in Ecuador.
Yarik Sisa, creative manager for the film, said the story is inspired by ancestral practices that have survived the passage of time, including taking musical instruments to energetic points of the land the night before a celebration so that the instruments are endowed with “soul.”
The film also includes characters such as Ayaruku, which represents an indomitable spirit; Ayawa, a representation of the sublime and the feminine; and Ayaku, a child symbolizing tenderness.
These characters play their traditional instruments and stomp their feet as part of a rhythmic dance as they enter a dark cavern, which symbolizes globalization, where the spirits give them the mission of becoming new seeds of their people.
The film then shows an Indigenous grandfather talking to his granddaughter who promises her elder she will become a woman strong as a rock and a defender of their culture. Her grandfather then asks her to never stray from that path.
The team behind “We’re Aya” hopes to release more films and even video games in Quichua in the coming years and even enter the international video game market with games “made by Quichuas in a Quichua environment,” said Malkik Anrango, the film's creative director.
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
This version has been updated to correct the name of the film’s creative director to Malkik Anrango.
Tupac Amaru, the director of "Aya Somos," the first Quichua animated short, blending Otavalo culture with Japanese-style anime, gives an interview in Hatun Rumi, Ecuador, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
Yarik Sisa, an artist with Yay Animación, sketches in his notebook while his colleagues talk about their project "Aya Somos," the first Quichua animated short, blending Otavalo culture with Japanese-style anime, in Hatun Rumi, Ecuador, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
From left, Malkik Anrango, Yarik Sisa and Tupac Amaru walk among landscape they aim to capture in "Aya Somos," the first Quichua animated short, blending Otavalo culture with Japanese-style anime, in Hatun Rumi, Ecuador, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
From left, Malkik Anrango, Tupac Amaru and Yarik Sisa chat about "Aya Somos," the first Quichua animated short, blending Otavalo culture with Japanese-style anime, in the courtyard of the Yay Animación studio in Hatun Rumi, Ecuador, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
Yarik Sisa, an artist with Yay Animación, works on "Aya Somos," the first Quichua animated short, blending Otavalo culture with Japanese-style anime, in Hatun Rumi, Ecuador, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich. (AP) — An attacker armed with a rifle was fatally shot after ramming his vehicle into one of the nation’s largest Reform synagogues Thursday in what federal investigators called an act of violence targeting the Jewish community.
Jennifer Runyan, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Detroit field office, called the incident “deeply disturbing and tragic” and said that the FBI is leading the investigation.
The agency considers the crime a “targeted act of violence against the Jewish community,” she said at a news conference Thursday. Investigators have not determined a motive yet.
“What drove this person into action has to be determined by the investigation,” said Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard.
The vehicle caught fire after crashing into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, just outside Detroit, and driving through a hallway as security opened fire, authorities said.
None of the synagogue’s staff, teachers or the 140 children at its early childhood center were injured, Bouchard said.
“He was traveling with purpose down the hall, from my look at the video,” Bouchard said.
In the minutes after the attack, smoke billowed from the synagogue. One security officer was hit by the vehicle and knocked unconscious but did not suffer life-threatening injuries, the sheriff said. And 30 law enforcement officers were treated for smoke inhalation.
West Bloomfield Police Chief Dale Young said Temple security officers “engaged the individual and neutralized the threat.”
The suspect was found dead inside his vehicle, Bouchard said.
Bouchard credited preparation and training for the swift response to the threat, saying that he had contacted the head of security for the temple just two days before the attack.
Rabbi Arianna Gordon, from Temple Israel, thanked the security team, law enforcement and early childhood teachers for getting the children out safely and reunited with their parents, calling them the “true rock stars of the day.”
About a dozen parents sprinted to get their children soon after authorities cleared the building. Other families were reunited at a nearby Jewish Community Center.
Allison Jacobs, whose 18-month-old daughter is enrolled in Temple Israel’s day care, said she got a message from a teacher saying the children were OK even before she knew what happened.
“There are no words. I was in complete and utter shock,” she told the AP. “I was hoping that it was a false report.”
Jacobs, whose family is Jewish, said she tries not to think about all that’s going on in the world.
“You never think that this is actually going to happen to you,” she said. “But I know that it’s — it’s just terrible. This morning I was mourning the loss of the school that got hit in Iran.”
Synagogues around the world have been on edge and have been ramping up security since the U.S. and Israel launched a war with Iran with missile strikes on Feb. 28.
The FBI has warned that Iranian operatives may be planning drone attacks on targets in California. Two men brought explosives to a far-right protest outside the New York mayoral mansion on Saturday. Investigators allege they were inspired by the Islamic State extremist group.
And an assailant drove a car into people outside an Orthodox synagogue in Manchester, England, on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. He stabbed two people to death before officers shot and killed him.
President Donald Trump said he had been fully briefed on the attack, calling it a “terrible thing.”
Steven Ingber, the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Detroit, lamented the fact that his organization had to train and prepare for an attack.
“I’d love to say that I’m shocked, that I’m surprised, but I’m not,” he said during a news conference Thursday.
He added: “This will not change us. This will not deter us and we will continue.”
Oakland County is Michigan’s second-largest county with roughly 1.3 million people. The majority of Detroit-area Jewish residents live there.
“This is heartbreaking,” Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement. “Michigan’s Jewish community should be able to live and practice their faith in peace.”
It was the second attack at a house of worship in Michigan within the past year. Last September, a former Marine fatally shot four people at a church north of Detroit and set it ablaze. The FBI later said he was motivated by “anti-religious beliefs” against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Temple Israel has 12,000 members, according to its website, which says the synagogue is “passionate about helping Jewish communities across the globe” and that its mission is to “create a community building through the lens of Reform Judaism.”
The Jewish Federation of Detroit briefly advised all Jewish organizations in the area to lock down.
Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, a survivor of the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue massacre, said in a statement that the Michigan attack demonstrates yet again the consequences of hatred.
“We lose our humanity when we seek violent means as a solution,” said Myers, rabbi of the Tree of Life Congregation, where 11 worshippers died in the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history. “No one should dwell in fear because of who they are.”
This story has been corrected to show that the shooting at a church north of Detroit happened in September, not October.
Durkin Richer reported from Washington, D.C. Associated Press reporters Ed White in Detroit; Todd Richmond in Madison, Wisconsin; John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio; and Eric Tucker in Washington, D.C., contributed.
Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard speaks to media as police respond to scene of a shooting at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Mich., on Thursday, March 12 2026. (Jacob Hamilton /Ann Arbor News via AP)
Law enforcement escort families with children away from the Temple Israel synagogue Thursday, March 12, 2026, in West Bloomfield Township, Mich. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Police respond to scene of a shooting at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Mich., on Thursday, March 12 2026. (Jacob Hamilton/Ann Arbor News via AP)
Law enforcement respond to a call at Temple Israel synagogue Thursday, March 12, 2026, in West Bloomfield Township, Mich. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Law enforcement respond to a call at Temple Israel synagogue Thursday, March 12, 2026, in West Bloomfield Township, Mich. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Law enforcement respond to a call at Temple Israel synagogue Thursday, March 12, 2026, in West Bloomfield Township, Mich. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
A woman gathers children as law enforcement respond to a call at Temple Israel synagogue on Thursday, March 12, 2026, in West Bloomfield Township, Mich. (AP Photo/Corey Williams)
Law enforcement respond to a call at Temple Israel synagogue on Thursday, March 12, 2026, in West Bloomfield Township, Mich. (AP Photo/Corey Williams)
Law enforcement respond to a call at Temple Israel synagogue, Thursday, March 12, 2026 in West Bloomfield Township, Mich. (AP Photo/Corey Williams)
Law enforcement respond to a call at Temple Israel synagogue in West Bloomfield Township, Mich. (AP Photo/Corey Williams)
People gather near Temple Israel synagogue in West Bloomfield Township, Mich. (AP Photo/Corey Williams)
